Sarkozy tries to free Libya nurses

Cécilia Sarkozy, wife of the French president, and the EU commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, were in talks last night in Tripoli hoping to secure the "immediate" return home of five Bulgarian nurses and a doctor.

The six have been in jail for eight years for allegedly contaminating children with the Aids virus; their return would be a final gesture by Libya after it commuted their death sentences to life in prison.

Nicolas Sarkozy himself is to visit Libya tomorrow, if the Bulgarians are freed, Libyan officials confirmed. Bulgaria had officially asked Tripoli on Thursday to repatriate the nurses to serve their sentences at home. It granted citizenship to the doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz, a Palestinian, last month.

This was Mrs Sarkozy's second trip to Libya on behalf of the prisoners, and, like the first, it drew criticism from French opposition Socialists, with one MP claiming that the president was profiting from the work over past years by other nations and the EU.

Libyan officials said Mrs Sarkozy met their leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, on Sunday, but did not elaborate.